Restaurant gives family discount for well-behaved kids

A mother and father were eating out at a small restaurant in Poulsbo, Wash., with their three kids, ages 2, 3 and 8.

Sound like a recipe for disaster?

Well, actually, the children were so beautifully behaved that the server rewarded the family by giving them a free bowl of ice cream to share, subtracting four dollars from their tab and leaving a friendly message on their receipt: WELL BEHAVED KIDS.

The mom is a Reddit user and two days ago she shared a photo of the receipt and the story on the social media site under the name LauraInk. She writes:

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner sans crayons, iPods, and other toys. We appreciate conversing with one another over dinner and always use our dinners out to catch up and do just that. I worked in the restaurant industry prior to having kids and so have high expectations of my children when we are out to eat. We never arrive starving and always tip well. I encourage all parents to take their kids out to eat so they know how to do so. This kind of reward was not expected and probably not something they do regularly. Frankly, it is not the kind of restaurant you often see young children at. Our server visited our table toward the end of our dinner and remarked at how the entire serving staff hadn’t even noticed there were young children at our table. They brought us a bowl of ice cream to share and we saw this little nugget of goodness on our tab at the end of our meal.

The post spurred up over 1500 comments, stirring up a heated conversation on Reddit. Many users saw it as an opportunity to bash “irresponsible” parents who take “their little monsters” to restaurants. But more so, users felt that the family shouldn’t have been rewarded for the kids’ good behavior.

Princess Lolita chimed in:

People with well-behaved children shouldn’t get discounts, that should be the norm. People with children who act poorly should get $5 added to their bill for forcing all the diners around them have a shitty experience.

FostHouser agreed:

They don’t deserve a discount for simply acting appropriately. I don’t get a discount for not having kids. Dumb idea is dumb.

ColdOlivesat3am wrote:

Why do people with kids think they deserve something special from the rest of us? You chose to have the kids and you are supposed to raise them properly. You don’t deserve extra credit for simply doing what you are supposed to do. How about you give me 10% off for not bringing in loud obnoxious kids and ordering a proper meal with alcohol that will raise my tab and increase your tip?

I definitely agree that kids should behave in restaurants and parents should set high expectations. Rewards should never be expected. Restaurants developing a policy to offer discounts to families with kids who put napkins in their laps is a ridiculous idea. That’s like saying that dog owners should be paid $5 every time they pick up their poop.

But I don’t think that’s what this Reddit user is proposing nor what this story is about. What happened in the restaurant is a random act of kindness, a little bright spot in somebody’s life—and I think the lesson here is that we should all take a little more time to smile at the crossing guard helping the kids across the street, thank the grocery clerk who is always in a good mood, tell the neighbor across the street that her front yard looks pretty and well-kept. Obviously this mother of three kids has worked hard to raise kids who’d live up to Mary Poppins expectations and it’s sweet that a complete stranger noticed.